Monday, February 13, 2012

*global village gifts*

Hello friends!

One of the things I wanted to do with this blog was to occasionally highlight a non-profit organization. With so many great people doing good out in the world, it was tricky to narrow it down to one to start with.

Then Julie Barker happened to be one of the presenters at a Women's Conference I attended recently. She talked aboutFair Trade.

Here is an overview of what Fair Trade is about: Seeking to bring opportunities for a sustainable way of life to poor communities around the world, Fair Trade provides vital income to Third World people by marketing their

handicrafts and telling their stories in North America. There are 35 countries represented.

The artisans are paid, whether or not their goods sell right away. GLOBAL VILLAGE GIFTS in Logan, Utah is an umbrella store of Ten Thousand Villages, a member of the U.S. Fair Trade Federation in Salt Lake City, Utah.

The artisan women sing their song together: "We are women working to build our lives. Together we have overcome many problems. We will send our children to school with our earnings. We purchase our food and clothing, We plant our gardens and cultivate our crops, We repair our houses and we plant trees. By working together, we become united in one mind."

have a look at some of the handmade treasures in

Global Village Gifts -a Fair Trade Store

phone case from Afghanistan

booties from Guatemala

"Galimoto" bikes from Kenya

women

dancing

and tree of life

made from recycled oil drums in Haiti

pencil box from India

toys and musical instruments

paper bowls and heart box made from recycled newspaper and magazines

in Vietnam and the Philippines

Kisii stone statues from Kenya

gourds from Peru

jewelry, scarves, and purses

seem to sell the most

And here is the interview with Julie Barker:

Quick bio:

During Julie’s growing-up years her family lived in Afghanistan, India, Brazil, and the Philippines. Her father worked at the International Rice Research Institute, in Los Banos, Philippines,as an entomologist, helping farmers grow and develop varieties of rice to feed the world. Julie met her husband in the Philippines where his father worked in the same place as hers! She now lives in Cache Valley, Utah with her husband and children.

1. If you close your eyes and go back to one of the places you lived growing up, what do you see?

My first memories were when I was in India and I remember a very normal home and family life, but in a very different culture. I noticed that when I would come back to the United States, I could tell that we were living in a place much different than where I was born. My memories include a fun school -it was a very small school, K-12 and there were less than 60 students in the whole school.

We dealt with issues that we probably wouldn’t have dealt with here; we never could go down to a grocery store and buy the foods that we wanted, we just bought what was available. The main religion in India is Hindu, and most people are vegetarian so we didn’t have all types of foods available. But we always felt very safe in the community and my upbringing was very different from how I’ve raised my children in the United States.

2.What advice would you give to parents, based on your experiences in different countries?

I’ve always thought it was very important to educate my children knowing about different cultures and to respect them. We do have a lot of people in Cache Valley that have traveled, but our population is not very diverse in my opinion. I’ve always stressed to my kids, if there is someone that’s different from you, learn about them, don’t think about them as being different or someone that might not want to get to know you. They want to get to know you and learn about us. I think it’s important that we learn about their culture and experiences because we can really learn a lot about people and appreciate all the good that is in them and understand different cultures.

3.What has been your favorite part of living abroad?

For me it was being able to experience all of the wonderful things around the world. In high school we didn’t have your normal competitions between high schools like we do here. We were able to travel to different countries and then compete at facilities where people would come from all over the world. All the international schools would congregate usually at military bases, and oh my goodness it was a wonderful experience. I was able to go and experience things that have made lasting memories. I still have friendships all over the world and with the Internet I can talk to them easily. I would say the thing that I cherish the most was the education that I got; I was able to attend very good schools and receive a very good education while living overseas.

4 .What has been a challenge?

The challenge is not being able to continue to travel as much as I would like. I’ve had very little opportunity to take my family overseas. I did take my family back to the Philippines in 2008. They were able to see where my husband and I grew up and they were able to meet my friends, visit my schools and churches and everything that was part of my life in my younger years. I just wish I could travel more.

5.What gave you the idea of a Fair Trade store?

I was looking for opportunities where I could support and help people around the world. That’s always been a desire of mine and when I saw that Global Village Gifts was going to get started in Cache Valley, I inquired. I found out that it was something that I could do to help people all over the world while still living here in Cache Valley. It’s been a lot of fun, it’s been a lot of work. I didn’t know much about running a retail store and so I’ve learned a lot of new skills by working in the store. My main desire was to try to help those less fortunate in the world that don’t have all of the basic things that we take for granted each day like food, water and shelter. A lot of these people, because of the help they receive are now living with more dignity in their lives.

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About Me

I'm intrigued by big city life and charmed by the countryside, my personality is a combo of Scandinavian and (American) Southern, I never tire of exploring the nooks, history, and people around the world, and my family is my biggest joy and inspiration.